San Mateo councilmembers hope to revisit school district talks over SRO funding

While an officer was not on site during the start of the altercation, they were deployed to the school quickly and de-escalated the situation, San Mateo police Officer Andrew Peek said.

Currently, there are two school resource officers, or law enforcement officers embedded within the schools, who rotate among all the schools at San Mateo Union High School and San Mateo-Foster City School districts. The incident has led some city leaders, such as Councilmember Nicole Fernandez — who is also a city liaison to the district — to question whether there should be more school resource officers across the districts.

“It's more of a preventative measure. In the past, when we've had the three positions … we had more bandwidth for the officers to build those relationships between elementary and high school,” she said.

It’s unclear how many altercations SROs have responded to so far this year, but Fernandez said it is still worth looking into. Currently, the city spends roughly $500,000 from its own fund for the two positions. There used to be three SROs, funded jointly between the city and each school district, but in 2021, the agreement expired and was not renewed.

Laura Chalkley, spokesperson for SMUHSD, said via email that the district doesn't have plans to allocate funding for more SROs in the near term.

“We analyze our needs every year and have determined not to increase funding for SROs at this time,” she said.

The San Mateo-Foster City School District did not respond for comment.

Despite the lack of short-term funding plans from the district, Fernandez said she hopes there are eventually more dedicated resources.

“They are absolutely stretched thin,” Fernandez said. “Thinking long term with establishing those relationships and having the eyes and ears to prevent such incidents.”